1,147 wreaths to be laid in Winchendon cemetery

WINCHENDON -- Local Wreaths Across America organizer John Farmer said 2012 will be the biggest year ever for the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

On Friday morning, volunteers will place 1,147 evergreen wreaths on the graves of veterans there.

Farmer, a retired Army master sergeant from Fitchburg, said the volunteers will include adults and Oakmont Regional High School students, as well as students from Princeton and Winchendon.

"This is about the veterans and what they've done for the country," Farmer said, adding that participation will help the students remember and honor American veterans.

Each evergreen wreath is about 2 feet in diameter, has a red bow in the center and sits upright on a wire tripod. Last year, volunteers placed 744 wreaths on veterans' graves in the cemetery.

The wreaths are from Worcester Wreath Co., of Harrington, Maine, the company that created Wreaths Across America two decades ago when owner Morrill Worcester donated surplus Christmas wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to honor fallen veterans.

More than 700 veterans cemeteries participate in the program, according to Farmer. Companies like Wal-Mart, Titan and Ross donate the use of tractor-trailers to transport the wreaths.

Farmer has been soliciting donations since April to purchase the wreaths. He raised $11,300 this year, the highest amount yet.

This is the eighth year the program has been in Winchendon.

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The Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery has about 1,300 graves, and Farmer said they came close this year to having one wreath for every grave. So far, they've had to rotate which graves are honored each year, but he hopes to change that in 2013.

"It's growing every year, and I'm looking for next year to be even bigger," he said.

Farmer said one task for him this year is to make sure the volunteers don't put the wreaths too close to the gravestones. Last year, some wire frames contacted the stones and left rusty marks that required a lot of work to remove.

There will be a short ceremony Saturday at 11:45 a.m., at the cemetery, and the wreaths will be removed by volunteers in January.

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